Business As Usual After Major Fire

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31549, 11 December 1967, Page 1

Business As Usual After Major Fire

(New Zealand Press Association)

NELSON, December 10.

“Business as usual” is the motto for Collingwood, which had its sole hotel, main store and memorial hall completely destroyed in a fierce early-morning fire on Saturday.

The directors of the Collingwood Co-opera-tive Dairy Company, at an emergency meeting yesterday, decided to reopen the Golden Hill General Store in temporary premises tomorrow.

The only business premises left standing in the main street were the Post Office, another store, a garage, two tearooms and a dairy company office. The chairman (Mr W. J. Solly) said today that arrangements were already in train to rebuild the store on its previous site. It is also business as usual

for the proprietor of the Post Office Hotel. Bar Set Up While firemen and helpers were still in the ruins of his smouldering hotel yesterday, he opened a temporary bar in a garage which has been christened the' “Fast Gulp” Saloon.

The fire started in the kitchen of the two-storey wooden hotel about 2.45 a.m. and, fanned by a 50 m.p.h. westerly wind, burst through to the upper floor. The licensee (Mr F. J. Moresby) and the cook (Mr C. W. Turton), the only occupants, were woken by the fire alarm system. They escaped with only the clothes they were wearing. The fire spread next door to the memorial hall, which housed equipment belonging to an indoor bowling club, a Druids Lodge and R.S.A., and served as the town library. The building is believed to be insured for $26,000. A special meeting of Collingwood ratepayers this week will discuss its replacement Fire Crossed Road The fire was blown from the hall across the main street to the store opposite. It quickly burnt. Recently renovated, the store was packed with Christmas stock. A new delivery van, with less than 1000 miles use, was burnt out. Insurance assessors were to view the damage today. Collingwood volunteer firemen, aided by the Takaka brigade, which arrived at 3.30 a.m. from 20 miles away, were able to prevent the fire spreading further. Flames damaged Mr R. Macdonald’s general store, and the home of Mr D. King, Collingwood’s chief fire officer.

The fire was contained by 5.30 a.m. At its peak it sent flames and sparks high in the air which drew many of the area’s 1250 residents to the town. Debris In Wind A high wind, accompanied by lashing rain about 10.30 a.m., sent sheets of iron flying from the roofs of the burning buildings and brought down two of the hotel’s three tall brick chimneys.

Firemen continued to hose the smouldering sites until mid-morning. The Golden Bay County Council’s front-end

loader was used to clear debris from the street. Collingwood has been ravaged by four other major fires. The first in 1859 was after the town was at its peak as a gold-mining centre. All stores, hotels, business houses and many dwellings were destroyed.

A fire in 1904 again destroyed most of the business section and, 20 homes. The Post Office Hotel destroyed yesterday was rebuilt after that fire. Two fires in the late twenties and early thirties seriously damaged the business centre.